Addressing the harmful use of alcohol - WHO Western Pacific Region

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6. Setting a minimum purchase age The supply of alcohol to minors by adults, perhaps just above the minimum age themselves, and without the knowledge of parents, is a serious public health issue, but laws are underenforced. To change this situation, legislation needs to be clear, simple and easily enforceable. A few well-publicised prosecutions raise awareness and may help prevent the serious harm that comes when some teenagers are supplied with large quantities of alcohol by adults. Age verification It is often a defence against a charge of selling to a minor or allowing a minor into agerestricted premises if the seller has seen an evidence of age document. These documents should be defined in the legislation and are typically a driver’s licence, passport, or other officially authorized identification card (and it should be an offence for purchaser to present false documents). Checking identification is an important host responsibility practice. Expressing this practice in legislation as a defence mechanism may not be sufficient to enable monitoring agencies to require it to be done. Ontario makes it an offence to serve people known or appearing to be under the age of 19, while Manitoba’s regulations require licensees and staff to request proof of age from all young-looking persons. In New Zealand, where seeing proof of age is a defence, supermarket chains themselves adopted a policy of requesting identification from everyone who looks under 25 years – which has been acceptable to customers. In late 2009, Scotland introduced an amendment to its licensing Act to make it a condition of the licence to have an in-house age verification policy. This is a management policy that steps are to be taken to establish the age of a person attempting to buy alcohol if it appears to seller that they may be less than 21 years of age or such older age as may be specified in the policy. Monitoring and enforcement Legislation on licensing the sale of alcohol makes it an offence for licence holders or their staff to sell alcohol to minors, and this may also result in loss of the licence. New Zealand and Scotland both require the district court to notify the licensing authority of any convictions. In some jurisdictions, police now undertake controlled purchase operations to test whether bars or retailers are selling to minors without checking their age. In this test, a minor attempts to purchase alcohol without identification but does not lie about their age if asked. The purchase is made using a cash or credit card, which fails (avoiding the problem of what to do with the alcohol). This may require the law to exempt minors who purchase alcohol to assist police. Police publicize the names of businesses caught selling to minors and may prosecute (Alcohol Advisory Council 2004; Huckle et al. 2008a; Montgomery et al. 2006). Return to TOC 69
Addressing the harmful use of alcohol : A guide to developing effective alcohol legislation A disadvantage of prosecuting sales to minors in the courts is that magistrates or judges may have low awareness of alcohol issues, consider these offences to be quite minor and impose very low fines. New Zealand police, for example, prefer to apply for variation, suspension or cancellation of the licence to sell alcohol (Lopdell 2002; Webb 2005), and any prosecutions must in any case be reported to the licensing authority. Licensing is the appropriate system for weeding out poor or irresponsible operators. Licensing legislation also typically addresses other supply of alcohol to minors, making it a prosecutable offence to: • buy alcohol if you are under the minimum age; • present false evidence of age; and/or • supply alcohol to a minor or purchase alcohol on their behalf. Offences by young people usually carry fairly small fines. Countries such as New Zealand and Victoria, Australia, have amended their legislation to allow police to issue infringement notices (small instant fines) for under-age alcohol offences. Monitoring and enforcement issues, including monitoring for sales to minors, are also discussed in the next section. Table 6.1 : Legislative examples Liquor Licence Act, Ontario (1990) Possession or consumption: 8) No person under 19 years of age shall have, consume, attempt to purchase, purchase or otherwise obtain liquor… 13) This section does not apply: a) to the supplying of liquor to a person under 19 years of age in a residence as defined in section 31 or in a private place as defined in the regulations by a parent of the person or a person having lawful custody of the person… Liquor Act, New South Wales (2007) Offences relating to sale or supply of liquor to minors 1) Selling liquor to minors A person must not sell liquor to a minor. Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units or 12 months imprisonment (or both). 2) Supplying liquor to minors on licensed premises A person must not supply liquor to a minor on licensed premises. Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units or 12 months imprisonment (or both). 70 Return to TOC
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Table of Contents Acknowledgments v
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7. Monitoring and enforcement 74 Ra
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1. Introduction Purpose and audienc
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I. Introduction alarming “extent
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2. The importance of public health
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3. Reducing affordability Alcohol t
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3. Reducing affordability Registeri
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3. Reducing affordability From the
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3. Reducing affordability smuggled
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Page 36 and 37: 4. Regulating availability Rational
Page 38 and 39: 4. Regulating availability All the
Page 40 and 41: 4. Regulating availability Retail m
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Page 60 and 61: 4. Regulating availability Sale of
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Page 64 and 65: 4. Regulating availability Issues a
Page 72 and 73: 5. Regulating hours and days of tra
Page 74 and 75: 6. Setting a minimum purchase age R
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Page 82 and 83: 7. Monitoring and enforcement Issue
Page 84 and 85: 7. Monitoring and enforcement licen
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Page 94 and 95: 8. Regulating alcohol marketing whi
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Page 98 and 99: 8. Regulating alcohol marketing Tab
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Page 104 and 105: 9. Deterring drink-driving Blood al
Page 106 and 107: 9. Deterring drink-driving why drin
Page 108 and 109: 10. Implementation The importance o
Page 110 and 111: 10. Implementation Public interest
Page 112 and 113: References Academy of Medical Scien
Page 114 and 115: References Euromonitor Internationa
Page 116 and 117: References Huckle, T., P. Sweetsur,
Page 118 and 119: References Rise, J. Natvig, H., Sto
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Addressing the harmful use of alcohol - WHO Western Pacific Region

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